A silver mt. zion Lyrics, Photos, Pictures, Paroles, Letras, Text for every songs

B i o g r a p h y
(by Official Press)

The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La-Band formed in December 2000, when the original three members of A Silver Mt. Zion (Efrim: guitar, piano, vocals; Thierry: contrebasse; Sophie: violin) asked three additional players to join (Beckie: cello; Ian: guitar; Jessica: violin). This line-up, juxtaposing a string quartet with 2 electric guitars, continues to this day. A seventh member was added in 2003 (Scott: drums, guitar, mandolin, etc.). The debut performance by A Silver Mt. Zion took place at the Constellation Room in spring 1999, as part of the Musique Fragile concert series. This half-hour composition, built around a descending piano line and a field recording spliced on a reel-to-reel tape deck, went on to form the template for the band's debut record, He Has Left Us Alone, But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms (cst009). Expanding to six musicians at the end of 2000 (and lengthening the band name accordingly), the group worked on new arrangements of material from the debut and began writing new songs, then toured Europe in early 2001. The first album written by the larger band, "Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward." (cst018), was recorded over a couple of weekends immediately after the tour. The first two SMZ releases feature largely instrumental work, a punk-rock chamber music of sorts that evolved out of the three founding musicians' desire to compose in a setting more intimate than their other band, the sprawling nine-piece godspeed you! black emperor. Both records were released to broad critical acclaim, and while these albums include the earliest examples of lead vocal and lyrics by Efrim, it was in 2002, as godspeed's recording and touring schedule wound down, that SMZ began working in earnest on a decidedly more lyric-guided approach to songwriting and a more articulate attempt to harness the protest song traditions of folk, punk and avant rock.

The band has been writing, recording and touring regularly for the last two years and has recorded two double albums of vocal-driven material, "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing (cst027) and Horses In The Sky (cst033). Efrim also recorded some song sketches in the fall of 2003 that turned into Thee Silver Mountain Reveries EP (cst030) originally available exclusively in concert during the band's spring 2004 European tour, then given a wider release in the summer of that year. All iterations of the Silver Mt. Zion band have been recorded at Montreal's Hotel2Tango (a recording studio built by Efrim and Thierry, along with engineer Howard Bilerman) and released by Constellation. Efrim is a founding member of godspeed you! black emperor and has been involved in many other projects via the Hotel2Tango loft space, which evolved from a ramshackle rehearsal hall in the mid-90s to an accessible 24-track analogue studio by the turn of the decade. He has recorded and/or played on records by Frankie Sparo, Hangedup, Hannah Marcus, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic and Phonemes, among others, and is chiefly responsible for the album artwork that accompanies all the albums by gy!be and SMZ. He has played in a Glenn Branca guitar orchestra performance, in an improv concert with members of Acid Mothers Temple, and has written for Fish Piss magazine. Silver Mt. Zion is his central song-writing vehicle, for which he writes all of the lyrics. Thierry has played electric bass in gy!be 1996, and began playing contrebasse a year later, initially in SMZ and Molasses. He has pursued acoustic bass as his central instrument ever since, playing in countless improv and free-jazz formations around Montreal, and on many albums recorded at the Hotel2Tango (where he is a partner and engineer). He has recorded albums by Fly Pan Am, Crackpot, and free music ensemble Balai Mechanique (in which he also plays), among others. He is also a founding member of klezmer-inspired quartet Black Ox Orkestar.

Sophie has played violin in gy!be and SMZ since 1998 and Set Fire To Flames since 2000. She has contributed to innumerable records by other bands and is a highly active player in the local Montreal scene. Most recently, she has played and toured with Valley Of The Giants, contributed to recordings by Hrsta and Kiss Me Deadly, and founded her own label, Bangor Records, whose first release will be by The Mile End Ladies' String Auxiliary (in which she also plays). She wields electric bass in the noise-rock duo Diebold with fellow SMZ member Ian. Beckie has played cello in SMZ since 2000 and features as a member and/or contributor to a long list of other Montreal-based bands and projects, including Set Fire To Flames, Blackout and Elizabeth Anka Vajagic. She collaborates regularly with the local modern dance community and is a co-founder of the cello and percussion duo Esmerine. She also organises conferences for the Canadian Environmental Network. Ian has played guitar in SMZ since 2000, prior to which he was the guitarist for postpunk bands Sofa (1992-1997) and Sackville (1995-1999). He has contributed guitar, bass, drums and/or programming and computer arrangements to recordings by Hangedup, Frankie Sparo and Priya Thomas, among others. He recorded the debut record by Fly Pan Am and is co-founder of Constellation Records, as well as co-curator of the Musique Fragile concert series that ran in Montreal from 1997-1999 and gave many of the city's current experimental and improv players one of the first accessible, artist-friendly venues for performance. He currently makes computer-assisted music in Re: and bangs the drums in Diebold.

Jessica has played violin in SMZ since 2000, prior to which she played in various Montreal bands, toured with The Geraldine Fibbers, and was production co-ordinator for local film collective Automatic Vaudeville, to which she also contributed music and acting. Her violin work has graced many records, including Frankie Sparo and Hannah Marcus, and she plays regularly in local Arabic and Balkan music ensembles. She is a founding member of Black Ox Orkestar. She also makes lightboxes, metal flowers and figurines, wristbands, and other lovely objects. Scott has played drums, guitar, mandolin and cymbalom in SMZ since 2003. He played with various punk bands in Baltimore before moving to Montreal in 2000, where he completed school and co-founded the political puppet theatre troupe Petit Theatre de L'Absolu, which has toured France, Spain, the USA and Palestine. He is a founding member of Black Ox Orkestar, in which he plays mandolin, cymbalom and violin, and for which he sings and writes lyrics in Yiddish.

Movie (never made)

On silver mount zion
All buried in ruins
We was dancing the hora
Until we vomited blood
Spinning like crazy
Shoshana was jonesing
The towers had fallen
And the wind called out
My grandfather's name

Let's kill first the banker
With his professional demeanour
Let's televise and broadcast
The raping of kings
Let our crowds be fed on
Teargas and plate-glass
'Cause a people united
Is a wonderful thing

I know that you're dying
And i know i'm unwell
And together we sashay
Thru variations of hell

And as you walk through valleys of fear
The lure of my bed is ever near

Oh, don't be afraid, though the parade
Will not pass our way
It's nobler to never get paid
Than to bank on shit and dismay

Built then burnt (hurrah! Hurrah!)

Dear brothers and sisters
dear enemies and friends

Why are we all so alone here
All we need is a little more hope, a little more joy
All we need is a little more light, a little less weight, a little more freedom.
If we were an army, and if we believed that we were an army
And we believed that everyone was scared like little lost children in their grown up clothes and poses
So we ended up alone here floating through long wasted days, or great tribulations.
While everything felt wrong
Good words, strong words, words that could've moved mountains
Words that no one ever said
We were all waiting to hear those words and no one ever said them
And the tactics never hatched
And the plans were never mapped
And we all learned not to believe
And strange lonesome monsters loafed through the hills wondering why
And it is best to never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever wonder why
So tangle - oh tangle us up in bright red ribbons!
Let's have a parade
It's been so long since we had a parade, so let's have a parade!
Let's invite all our friends
And all our friends' friends!
Let's promenade down the boulevards with terrific pride and light in our eyes
Twelve feet tall and staggering
Sick with joy with the angels there and light in our eyes
Brothers and sisters, hope still waits in the wings like a bitter spinster
Impatient, lonely and shivering, waiting to build her glorious fires
It's because of our plans man; our beautiful ridiculous plans
Let's launch them like careening jetplanes
Let's crash all our planes in the river
Let's build strange and radiant machines at this jericho waiting to fall

Take these hands and throw them in the river

We got desperate
Waiting for our cheques to come
I got drunk, you got high
You would not raise your eyes

We got desperate
Waiting for our cheques to come
I got drunk, you got high
You would not raise your eyes

Kopkars on every corner
We're all alone
Kopkars on every corner
We're krawling home

Take these hands and throw them in the river
Take these hands and throw them in the river
Take these hands and throw them in the river
Take these hands and bury them in your hands

Could've moved mountains

These hands could've moved mountains.

The triumph of our tired eyes

Sisters and brothers,
We have surely lost our way.
In strip malls full of cancer,
And a pathetic rain.
And lover, sweet lover
Please don't discipline your hands.
Just kiss me in the morning,
In your dirtiest pants.

We will find our way.

We will find our way.

There is beauty in this land,
But i don't often see it.
There is beauty in this land,
But i don't often feel it.

Pimples are flowers,
Musicians are cowards!
Let's argue in the kitchen,
For hours and hours.
Tomorrow is a travesty,
Tomorrow should be ours.
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!
Musicians are cowards!

The soldiers with their specialists
And the pigs with their guns cannot stop,
The lost ones and the desparate ones and the driven ones.

The soldiers with their cigarettes
And the pigs with their guns cannot stop,
The lonesome ones and the desparate ones and the smart ones.

So come on friends,
To the barricades again.

So come on friends,
To the barricades again.

So come on friends,
To the barricades again.

So come on friends,
To the barricades again.

We will find our way,
We will find our way.

"When we finally cross the barricades
With the angels on our side
When we finally deny all the populary loss
When we finally let doubt and worry die
How will it feel?"

Babylon was built on fire / starsnostars

Babylon was built on fire
And the bones of useless machines
It hurt to breathe
You fell away from me

Packs of helicopters divide
Across a crowded sky
What angels did you ride
As i staggered at your side

First voice:
Citizens in their homes
And missiles in their holes
And citizens in their homes

Second voice:
The brightest night
I ever saw,
Across
An empty parking lot
No stars

Third voice:
This highway needs rain across
Both of its lanes until
All that remains is
This heart and its flames
And the rumble of trains
'Neath a handful of stars

American motor over smoldered field

It will not be a tender fire
Upon your postcard mountains
No golden children
Will write hymns about
The slow defeat of your reckless destiny

Bullets in the bellies of babies
Sleeping in the strangest places
Indifferent to the blinding grace of
The vapour-trails and burning waste
Of your baptist skies

Oh! To live! In a burning house
With burning children eating dust
And finger-painting flags
Smoke pours out of their eyes
They're praying and saluting
They're all hanged up

Hey! Okay! Kiss me slowly
Beneath the dripping leaves
Of our traintrack trees
Though sickly and diseased
Some weeds thrive anyways

This fence around your garden won't keep the sky from falling...

Goodbye desolate railyard

So goodbye
Lovely traintracks
Goodbye
Broken trees
The devil
Poured his concrete
Across all
Our empty fields
From shadows
Across our sunrise
And sand beneath our wheels
So goodbye lovely warehouse
And goodbye sleeping weeds
Your beauty was a shining thing
That fell away from me

Everybody gets a little lost sometimes

Pretty little lightning paw EP

Microphones in the trees

Microphones in the trees
Cameras in the sky
Antennas in the canyon
And the lobby's full of spies
For us who are like bulldozers
Sleeping in the sun
For us who are like lightning
Buried in the mud

Don't! Give! Up!
Don't! Give! In!

Our time will come
'Cause we are the flood

So grab my hand
Lets set some fires
The city's piss
All hung with wires
To kiss a tit
Or have one's tit kissed
On bended knee
It's all you need
Let's build ships
Let's drift away
Our mighty fleet must float again

We are the flood

Pretty little lightning paw

To fix it all
With lightning paw
Or explode
From joy and light
To break the bars
With piss and scars,
Just hold me 'neath the tumbling stars
And tell me
It's alrite...

Lightning paw
Pretty little lightning paw

There is the valley all swimming in light
There is a wonder in worry in life
There is a reason and there is a light
There is a valley all buried in light
There is a reason and beauty in life
There is a wonder and there is a light
The wind in the trees and the tumbling light
The whispering stars in the clouds tonight

Free born, all our children (free born...)

There's a river in the valley made of melting snow

Mystery and wonder did light up the valley
To be beat back by dark clouds and a harsh reeking wind
And that battle staggered through three awful months there
To stop for a minute
Just to start up again
Your hands like birds in the trees
If the trees themselves were all on fire
Your hips on mine make a choir
Singing "baruch atta adona�"
And the river never made it to the lake
So the lake surrendered to the mountain
And the mountain's heart did fucking break
At the sight of your nervous hands...
And oh my love
So gently breathing
So my heart does softly swell
So her & me did greet the evening
With much red wine and giddy yells
In these times of wandering soldiers
Building towers on ruined land
I hold my love to my belly
And feel her breath fall across my hands...
I have grown tired of the struggle
And i've grown tired of making plans
It think i'll quit to the valley
Regain my strength
And start again
Where once we were some clumsy army
Now we are just lazy hens
I think i'll quit to the valley
Until the light moves me again...
So, let's link arms sisters and brothers
And let's promise not to retreat
There is glory in our failure
So let's march to the rhythm of fatigue
To live our lives without leaders
To live in joy without fear
Let's walk together to the valley
And let the lights redeem our tears

God bless our dead marines

They put angels in the electric chair
Straight-up angels in the electric chair

And no-one knew or no-one cared
But burning stars lit up their hair
And burning stars lit up their hair
And crawled to heaven on golden stairs

And oh! How we to and fro! To and fro! To and fro!

This is our torched estates
(and we are your sweet mistakes)

And all them vulgar kings on their dirty thrones
Who among us will avenge miss nina simone?

There's fresh meat in the club tonight
God bless our dead marines

Someone had an accident
Above the burning trees
While somewhere distant peacefully
Our vulgar princes sleep
Dead kids dont get photographed
God bless our dead marines

The hungry and the hanged
The damaged and the done
Striving 'long this spinning rock
Tumbling past the sun
Get through this life without killing anyone
And consider yourself golden

Lost a friend to cocaine
Couple friends to smack
Troubled hearts map deserts
And they rarely do come back
Lost a friend to oceans
Lost a friend to hills
Lost a friend to suicide
Lost a friend to pills
Lost a friend to monsters
Lost a friend to shame
Lost a friend to marriage
Lost a friend to blame
Lost a friend to worry and
Lost a friend to wealth
Lost a friend to stubborn pride
And then i lost myself

I love my dog and she loves me
The world's a mess and so are we
She tumbles long green muddy fields
Sick with joy and glee
And as she dreams sweet puppy dreams
Whimpering gently

There's fresh meat in the club tonight
God bless our dead marines
Someone had an accident
Above the burning trees
While somewhere distant peacefully
Our vulgar princes sleep
Dead kids dont get photographed
God bless this century

When the world is sick can't no one be well
But i dreamt we was all beautiful and strong

Mountains made of steam

This was our stormy ending
Water sank our boats
Shouldn' t we oh shouldn't we
Throw our hopes into the ocean
The ocean
The warm grey sea

Tell me or
Kick me or
Hold me or
Please believe

This is their busted future
And this is our dream
Which one do you
Believe in, believe in, believe in, believe in
Together together together together
Never to retreat
Mystery and wonder
Messy hearts made of thunder

Somewhere there's a soldier
Sleeping in a field
Somewhere there's a mother a mother a mother a mother a mother a mother

Please believe in gentle dreams
The sweetness of people
Whistling in their sleep

The angels in your palm
Sing gentle worried songs
And the sweetness of our dreams
Like mountains made of steam

Horses in the sky

Oh my broken lamb
I worry when you cry
Baby's gonna fetch ya
Horses in the sky

Though dead hands ring the garden
And these are violent times
And violence brings more violence
And liars bring more lies

Though we was born defeated
Worried, tired and scared
And monsters build mean robots
Launching rockets into the air

And the wealth of our nations
Fed on angel blood
And our cities shot with moneyed schemes
Built on twigs and mud

And our schools look like prisons
And our prisons look like malls
And downtown's just a sick parade
Where no-one cares at all

And our hero's all died crazy
Broken, poor or shot
Let's celebrate their tragedy
And sanctify the loss

And manifest the daydream
Like those who fell before
And glorify our small attempts
And hate ourselves no more

Blow words between these sucker's teeth
And bind these panicked hands
Lose your heart like a clumsy bell
Please be well

And all i true love
Is the light
In my sister's darling eyes

Teddy roosevelt's guns

Canada oh canada i never been your son
You're a genteel rent boy
Choking on your tongue
And your bankers' vain plazas never nurtured no-one

And concrete expanses laying fallow in the sun
And your cities all collapsing while your corrupt mayors shrug

And your grown-ups all gone bankrupt and your children all on drugs
And your children are on drugs
And your doe-eyed policemen demanding more guns
And your distained farmers waiting on the flood

Canada oh canada i ain't ever been your kin
Overfed and easily led and twisting in the wind
Your senators all in diapers and stinking of gin

Shop and save
Beneath the western sun
Bought and paid for
Teddy roosevelt's guns

Hang on to each other

We all got born so afraid
And still search for words
To describe that pain
And cling to each other
Like pigeons in the rain
And nuzzle over feathered breast
With beaks all worn and cracked an stained...

Hang on to each other

So this one's for the lost ones
And the dead ones & the ones who fell away
All our busted brothers
And tumbled lovers
Spitting at the rain

We all got born so afraid
And still search for words
To describe that pain

Hang on to each other...
Any fucking thing you love...

Birds toss precious flowers
From the murky skies above...

Ring them bells (freedom has come and gone)

Ring them bells
Ring them sorrowfull bells
Now freedom has come and gone

We've been waiting so long
Never ever so long
Now freedom as come and gone

Shake that tail
Like any other worried soul
Now freedom as come and gone

Steamtrain's coming
Thirteen stories high
If that steamtrain don't come
I swear i will lay down and die

The city makes canyons
All littered with snow
And beneath their crummy towers
Our tiny bodies blow and blow

So drown them bells
Drown them miserable bells

Freedom has come and gone
Freedom has come and gone
Freedom has come and gone
Freedom has come and gone

We was all of us just tumbling birds hanging in the sky
And hauled our bones 'long troubling roads and did't none of us know why
And as we staggered towards a frightening dawn
I swear all i ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever believed in
Was all of us together all along

We was all of us just two shot birds tumbling thru the sky
And built cheap homes along company roads and didn't none of us ask why
And as we staggered towards a frightening dawn
I swear all i ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever believed in
Was all of us together all alone

Imagine the view
From a helicopter gunship
A man comes into view
And you hit a switch
And you cut that man in two

Imagine the view
When they bounce that shit off of satellites
And they hit a switch and when they hit that switch
All the heaven shits/falls on you

Imagine the view

Dull white starlite
Pale as the morning falls away

The devil each dawn
And flat greys upon
We're torn asunder neath his gaze

So c'mon ye children
If there's one thing we know
It's that them gathering clouds are swinging low

So don't you be precious
Man don't you be meek
There ain't no damn glory in the long retreat

Go call the fuzz
They'll shine their lights on us
We've been building in the dark
There's so many of us

Now blinking in the light
There's so many of us

Illuminated and proud
There's so many of us

But there ain't no truth but the no truth but the not truth, yeah
Ain't no thing but the nothing but the nothing, yeah
Ain't no fall but the long fall is a long fall, yeah
And there ain't no light but the true light is a dim light, yeah

But I�ve been waiting and longing for that light to fall all over me

6 and 6 parsons and he doth proclaim that the best little bits of us misfits and strays
Make a light in the night that needs to be shamed
All for some none for all
And all fallen the same

And we surrender the stage to those pale horse riders

Go forth, man
Get down
With a mighty fist and a retarded crown
Do the one-step the two-step
Sweet jubilee
And show me the light, goddamn

And lay me down in a bed full of rain

Yeah shit is bleak - we've seen it and worried
Our timid leaps get knee-deep and buried
Entire weeks where I swear I can barely rise

Electrical fits
Tantrums and prayers
Pride un-does what mercy repairs
The pits of this
Toss a match to it and start again

The absence of light is its own stubborn light - no light is a light
No light is the true light
And there is no light so there is a light so there is no light so there is a light

Though we've been denied too much hope in our lives
Let tonight be the night when it ends.

Tell me there is a light
There is a light

There
Is
A
Light

I Built Myself a Metal

I Built myself a metal bird
I fed my metal bird
The wings of other metal birds

And oh, how my baby flew
With heart so high and aim so true
Up to the roof and into the sky
Dumb as fire and twice as wise

Did you see that star go out
I seen it burn
Did you see that star go out
I seen it burn

That little star went out,
Your little eyes went out
That little star went out
Your little eyes went out

Our burnt little dreams are hid
Up where the stars get lit
Our burnt little dreams are hid
Up where the stars get lit

Now-time's the right time
Let�s lay those demons down
Our side's the right side
let's lay those demons down

We're virtueless in the white smoke
Virtueless in the white smoke
Virtueless in the white smoke
Virtueless in the white smoke

White smoke
White smoke
White

I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal birds

True
Love
Don't
Speak
Its
Own
Name

Kollapz Tradixional (Thee Olde Dirty Flag)

If she should come and greet me again
With the pains of this world writ 'cross all her limbs
Like bewildered child I'd hold her in mine
And stroke her sweet head evermore

Bound unto wonder
We�d carelessly stray
Like low-rolling shadows through the end of our days

There's trumpets in heaven
Six feet underground
Mighty and muddy
They faintly resound

And love and love like proud flying doves
With hearts full of pebbles and feathers and mud

Though there's bedlam beneath us
And no sky above
Just a dark fucking hollow that smothers and gusts

The flag, the flag, thee olde dirty flag
We lay down like dry stalks 'neath that stick and that rag

Shine up them buttons,
Baby bury the band,
And the flag, the flag, and thee olde dirty flag

Collapse Tradicional (For Darling)

Oh, my darling
The leaves
Oh, how they do breathe

There's a heart inside of everything
That nestles deep with tiny wings
Lay your hands inside this hand and gently sing

Kollaps Tradicional (Bury 3 Dynamos)

There is no dream that sings anymore,
That ship sailed a long time ago,
But true as the rust and the soil and the trees
Lord I still believe

Gave my right hand right hand gave my right
(Ball of fire burning ball of light)
Gave my right hand right hand gave my right
Right hand, right hand to that long thin long thin man
(Ball of light ball of burning light)
Gave my wrong hand gave my right hand to that long thin long thin man
(Crown of gold crown o' gold crown a golden crown)

Touched his hem touched his hem touched his golden crown
Touched his hem and touched his golden crown
Did you see did you see did you see that long thin man

Gonna bury three dynamos
Where the trees where the trees where the trees don't grow
Gonna bury three dynamos
Where the trees where the trees where the trees don't grow...

'Piphany Rambler

I'm 'piphany rambler
I ramble all day
'Piphany rambler
Don't take these blues away

Up is lovely
Down is too
It's its own peculiar labour
When you're not able to

Lay in the fire a while
Lay in the fire a while
Lay in the fire a while
Lay in the fire a while

Don't sleep
Don't sleep
Don't sleep
And then sleep

Tore a cloud and three birds fell
Three birds fell and then it rained
We crawled upside that mountain
Down its ass and back again

This tiny garden that we tend
Where flowers bloom like accidents
Let�s lay awhile and slowly wend
Through days as long as nights we spent hanging on

Great furrows in the pavement
Where our hooves strove to leap
Square men in the courtyard
Engines idling

We've seen those impossible mountains
We�ve seen that upward rain
Entire bibles full of broken things
Dark and wide as empty graves

Thunder said to the lightning
"Let your good-foot swing
Go down to the valley
And shine your light on everything"

Lightning said to thunder
"Go on swinging like the pounding rain
Swing your blues like a hammer
Ride your boy like a shuddering train
Go on, swing the ocean full
Go on swing the bending trees
Swing it with a heart that bursts
And shine your light on everything
Let your good-foot swing and shake
And shake, and shake, and shake!"

I'm 'piphany rambler
I ramble all day
Epiphany rambler
Don�t take these blues away

Up is lovely
Down is too
It�s its own peculiar labour
When you're not able to

Lay in the fire a while
Lay in the fire a while
Lay in the fire a while
Lay in the fire a while

Don't sleep
Don't sleep
Don't sleep
And the sleep

I've heard tell at the boring gates of hell that
There ain't nothing dear
But there is too much dear
But there is too much dear
Yeah there is too much dear...